Ask the Animals and They Will Teach You
As a mother and pastor, I prioritized time in nature for the children and youth in my care and influence. Even the youngest children put the seeds in the ground and helped pick the vegetables from the community garden. We financially supported young people to go to church camp and on service learning trips that exposed them to new places and geographies. We had family picnics, prayer walks, and time on the playground on Sundays for the children. We went kayaking and hiking, had outdoor spirit retreats and went camping. And yet unfortunately, I was unusual in my commitment to getting young people outside, and I missed opportunities to provide important connections and groundings in our faith.
Research, including ecoAmerica’s, has shown us over and over that time in nature is good for our physical, mental, and spiritual health. In addition, nearly three-fourths of clergy point to church camp as important to their call to ministry, and over half say camp was very or extremely important to their faith formation (1). However, a recent survey of 68,000 college students showed that Environmental Science majors are the least likely to identify with a religion, and the most likely to identify as agnostic or atheist (2). And unfortunately, this supports Blessed Tomorrow’s recent findings. We faith leaders are failing to make explicit connections between nature and God, between nature and our sacred writings, between nature and historical faith leaders, and between nature and spirituality.
This spring, Blessed Tomorrow conducted a survey of young adults with 130 respondents plus 13 listening sessions. Young adults today are less religious than in the past and they are more likely than other age cohorts to stop attending religious services or being active in a faith community. We wanted to learn more from them about nature and their faith.
Here are the key findings:
- Being in nature is important to the majority of young adults.
- Over ⅓ said that being outside is part of their practice to connect with God.
- Almost ½ said their faith community or denomination does nothing to support experiences in nature.
- Almost none said their faith community or denomination connect nature to their faith, even at religious camps and outdoor activities, and one respondent said they were told to read the Bible instead of trying to listen to God in nature.
- Young adults are not seeing how climate change is impacting their own lives and are not connecting climate change to faith.
Join me in changing this narrative!
- Take children and youth outside. Include regular time outside as well as special experiences, such as hiking or canoeing at your house of worship.
- Tell stories that connect nature to your faith. Moses went up the mountain to talk to God. Jesus went to the garden, desert, seaside, and mountain to pray. The story of Islam’s formalization started in a cave.
- Preach, teach and communicate about the natural world and climate change in connection to your faith.
Blessed Tomorrow has resources and support to help!
Sign your congregation up for One Home One Future for resources, events and support.
Host a screening of Caring for the Earth: Stories from Faith Communities which comes with a Discussion Guide and a Sermon + Worship kit.
Take the Blessed Tomorrow Climate Ambassador Training with a group at your congregation.
References:
- Summer Camp Staff Experiences and Call to Ministry · Sacred Playgrounds
- Finance Majors Go to Church. English Majors Don’t
About the Author:
Rev. Carol Devine, Senior Director, Blessed Tomorrow
Additional Resources:
Watch the 2026 National Faith + Climate Forum
Watch the 2026 American Climate Leadership Awards
Report: Organizations and Climate Action
Join the Campaign: One Home One Future
Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Children and Youth Report 2023